Long Runs:

I have been incorporating some longs into my off season training. Two weeks ago I did a 29 mile run and felt pretty good through the whole run. I took it slow averaging over 10 minute miles but all in all felt strong throughout the run, no crashes. This past Saturday I went for a 32 mile run and felt pretty good throughout the whole thing, even though some portions of the trails were not cleared yet and I had to run in about 6-8 inches of snow. My pace was slow, average pace of 10:30 miles, but with the snow and the distance I'm perfectly fine with that pace. I even picked it up for a few miles and clocked a 7:40 mile split at mile 30.

Why you may ask am I out in the cold and snow running for 5 or 6 hours, well long runs seem to be the key training tool for ultra marathoning, so I am incorporating them into my off season training, which in reality I am actually pretty much in training right now.

Here are some of my long runs

29 mile long run by jhanlon31 at Garmin Connect - Details

32 mile long run by jhanlon31 at Garmin Connect - Details

Keep it Simple Stupid:

My high school basketball coach used to tell us to "Keep it simple stupid." Too often we try to over complicate things, which is all to easy to do in our everyday life and activities like basketball ect... One of the things that I like the most about running is its simplicity.

You only have to worry about running...right? Well, yes but there are a lot of other factors that play into it, especially when you are working towards a specific fitness or performance goal. It is easy to get caught up in

VO2 max
Heart rate training,
Strength training
Cross training
Long runs
Tempo runs Speed work
Should I be doing Yoga? Everyone else seems to be doing it.
I'm not even going to get into barefoot running.

Then there is nutrition, injury prevention the list goes on and on. Sometimes we need to focus just getting out there and running and covering the basics and try not to over complicate things.
Here is a good article from Ultrarunning magazine about sticking to the basics and keeping it simple.

UltraRunning Article: Enjoy!